Category Archives: News

So I recently retired from facilitating and organizing Startup Weekend and Startup Next.

But fear not. I’m not going away and I’m not about to stop caring about entrepreneurial education for startup founders in our region. On the contrary, I’m ramping up my efforts.

That’s why I have chosen to offer the Lean Launchpad (LLP), the world’s premier pre-accelerator program from Stanford, Berkeley and hundreds of other universities and used by numerous F500 companies, FOR FREE to early-stage startups.

I’m officially retiring from facilitating and organizing Startup Weekends and Startup Next, effective immediately. (You can still invite me as a coach, though).

Waving goodbye (SW Tourism Tehran, Iran 2015)

So long and thanks for all the EPIC awesomeness. I’m forever grateful for the experience and the people I’ve met on my journeys and the chance to have an impact on entrepreneurship and inspire individuals worldwide. It has certainly added more than a 10x meaning and value to my life.

Note: For those of you who don’t know, Organizers and Facilitators of Startup Weekend work on an entirely voluntary basis – aka for FREE. Keep that in mind the next time you are participating at a Startup Weekend or when you’re organizing a Startup Weekend with a facilitator shipped in from out of town.

On a side note, we need to keep educating journalists on the difference between “Existenzgründung” (lifestyle business founder and freelancers mostly exchanging their hours for money) and startup founders. One doesn’t equal the other.

That the journalist writes I had a “Karriereknick” (career bend, in the negative sense) also goes to show that they have little knowledge of the world of startups. I’m a startup founder. Risk of failure is assumed as real. Not an office hero, chasing the 9-5 career. One does not equal the other. The failure I spoke of was harsh, but it was the best learning experience I’ve ever had so far. If anything, it was a career bend in the positive sense upwards and onwards.

And I was wearing a OnePiece Onesie, not a track suit. Let’s get that straight too. :)